Method of forming a ruffle or the like

ABSTRACT

A device for making ruffles, tufts, pompons or the like from such materials as cloth net, crepe paper, or tissue. The device has means adapted to be grasped by hand, means for supporting said material on which the material may be gathered, and means for temporarily retaining a fastening means. The device is adapted to be used in a method including the steps of placing the material over the supporting means of the device, gathering together the material thereon, passing the device through the gathered material until the fastening means extends through the material, and manipulating the fastening means so that the gathered material is held in its gathered condition and may be formed into the desired ruffle or the like.

United States. Patent [1 1 Cotugno [11 3,797,714 [451 Mar. 19, 1974 LIKE Inventor: Dolores Cotugno, 3305 N. Ridgeway Ave., Chicago, 111. 60618 Filed: Apr. 21, 1972 Appl. No.: 246,234

Related US. Application Data Division of Ser. No. 884,273, Dec. 11, 1969, Pat. No. 3,674,187.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 6/1913 Rosenberg 28/2 10/1946 Newman 223/103 X Ruiz et a1 28/2 ZZZ Cottrell 28/15 2,413,955 1/1947 2,655,297 10/1953 Garibaldi 223/103 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 9,008 6/1890 Great Britain 223/102 Primary Examiner-Geo. V. Larkin Attorney, Agent, or Firm--Alter, Weiss, Whitesel &

Laff

[5 7 ABSTRACT A device for making ruffles, tufts, pompons or the like from such materials as cloth net, crepe paper, or tissue. The device has means adapted to be grasped by hand, means for supporting said material on which the material may be gathered, and means for temporarily retaining a fastening means. The device is adapted to be used in a method including the steps of placing the material over the supporting means of the device, gathering together the material thereon, passing the device through the gathered material until the fastening means extends through the material, and manipulating the fastening means so that the gathered material is held in its gathered condition and may be formed into the desired ruffle or the like.

7 Claims, 10 Drawing Figures 1 METHOD OF FORMING A RUFFLE OR THE LIKE This is a divisionalapplication, the subject matter being originally presented inmy application Ser. No. 884,273, filed Dec. ll, 1969, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 3,674,187.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to tools andmethods for gathering together or ruffling flexible material such as cloth net, gauze, or paper and forming therefrom ruffles, pompons, or tufts. Many decorations, toys, and novelty items are made 'with ruffled or tufted nylon net, crepe paper, tissue, or other handicraft materials. These items are frequently made by handicrafters, working at home, in school classes, clubs, or other organizations. In the past, it has been difficult for the handicrafter to form the ruffles, tufts, or pompons usedin these items.

The conventional method has been to take an elongate piece of material, fold it down the center in a lengthwise direction, place a thread or wire down the interior of the fold, draw the ends of the thread together upon themselves on the exterior side of the fold, and fasten the endsof the thread together to form a small circle of thread-with the material bunched together on it at the 'foldline and fanning out radially above and below the thread circle. To carry out this method, a flat surface was needed which was at least as long as the material to be gathered, so that the centerline fold could readily be made. The fold was often madeby ironing. Thus, surfaces as large as 6 feet were often necessary. This, of course, was a substantial disadvantage. Also, placing the thread or wire down the interior of the fold was a time-consuming process. Probably the most important disadvantage, however, was that, if the thread or wire were not drawn together with the utmost patience and care, the material would bunch together unevenly and a very sloppy and uneven ruffle or pompon would result. These difficulties have discouraged many handicrafters from attempting projects requiring such ruffles, pompons,or the like.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is, thus, an object of this inventionto provide a novel device and method for the making of ruffles, tufts, pompons, or other handicraft novelties, centerpieces or the like, which are characterized by a high degree of utility, simplicity of design, ease of manufacture, and speed of operation. It is a further object of this invention to provide a device and a method for making ruffles which does not require locating the centerline of, or ironing, the material to be ruffled, which consistently gives uniform, regular, neat appearing ruffles, and which is capable of forming ruffles of awide variety of sizes. It is another object of this invention to provide a device and a method for making ruffles which does not require an extensive work surface. Further objects will be manifest from, the drawings, specification and claims.

One embodiment. of this invention is a rufflingtool having a handle with an elongate gathering portion on one end and a wire-retaining aperture or eye on the other end. The invention also includes a method for ruffling, comprising folding the material to be ruffled over the ruffling tool, gathering the material together on the gathering portion of the tool, retaining the gathered material in its gathered condition, pulling the too] out of the fully gathered material so that the wire con nected to the wire-retaining eye of the ruffling tool passes through the gathered material, pulling the wire through the material until the wire is about one inch from the end, twisting the ends of the wire together to fonn thedesired ruffle, cutting off the excess wire, and releasing the gathered material to form the desired ruffle or the like.

. DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front'elevational view of a mffling tool of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the ruffling tool of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged partial front elevational view of the ruffling tool of FIG. ll;

FIG. 4'is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 4-4 of FIG. 3;

FIGS. 5, 6, 7 and 8 are perspective views of the ruffling tool of FIG. 1 showing its use in forming a ruffle.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of an open ruffle. FIG. 10 is a perspective viewof a closed ruffle.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A ruffling tool 10 of this invention is disclosed in FIGS. 14 of the drawing. The tool 10 is a generally elongate circular rod, having a gathering portion 12 at one end thereof, an aperture or eye 14 at the other end thereof, and a handle 16 disposed intermediate the gathering portion and the eye. The tool 10 is preferably a unitary construction, and may be comprised of a single piece of molded plastic. It should have a relatively smooth surface with no sharp corners or projections on which the material to be ruffled might be snagged. Its dimensions may vary, but an overall length of 8 inches with a gathering portion 4 inches in length and onequarter inchwide is desirable. A tool of this size may be used to make ruffles from material up to 72 inches in length.

The end 18 of the gathering portion 12 is rounded and smooth so that the material to be ruffled may easily be slid over the end. The other end 20 of the gathering portion 12 is slightly flared so that it smoothly connects to handle 16 which has a diameter of approximately three-eighths inch, slightly greater than the diameter of the gathering portion. Handle 16 includes recessed areas 22 and 24 on opposite sides thereof to make it easier to hold the tool.

Eye 14' is adapted to firmly retain a length of ordinary wire, cloth-covered wire, or heavy thread during the ruffling process. The eye 14 should be so formed that the wire or thread may be easily threaded through it and removed from it. The eye 14 includes shoulders 26 and 28 disposed on jam walls 34 and 36, all of which are located between walls 30 and 32 of the eye. To thread the tool, the wire or thread is inserted through the eye and both ends are pulled away from the tool, the wire being guided between jam walls 34 and 36 by shoulders 26 and 28. Jam walls 34 and 36 should be sufficiently close together so that they will firmly retain the inserted wire or thread.

The method of this invention is shown in FIGS. 4-8. The method is used to produce ruffles, pompons, tufts, or other forms used for making decorations, toys, or

other articles. The ruffles and other decorative forms may be made from a variety of flexible materials in sheet form, such as nylon net, gauze, lace, crepe paper, or tissue. Nylon net is the preferred material in the method of this invention. The material used generally has a rectangular shape with dimensions of from 2 to 18 inches in width and from 2 to 6 feet in length.

To practice the method, a stiff wire or heavy thread, but preferably a cloth-covered wire, 38 is inserted through eye 14 and pulled between jam walls 34 and 36 so that the two ends are exposed for use, a short end of approximately one to two inches and a longer end of indeterminate length, preferably ranging from at least 6 inches to a yard. The tool is then grasped between the palm and first three fingers of a first hand 35, normally the left hand for right-handed persons. One end of the material 39 to be ruffled is folded over the tool 10 in the short direction to form a bight, and the overhanging edges are evenly aligned. The part 40 of the material which is not folded over the tool is allowed to hang loosely. The material is held in place on the tool 10 by the index finger and thumb of the first hand 35 as shown. The second hand 37 then gathers or bunches all the material 39 together on the gathering portion 12. This is done by placing the edges of the material just off the end of the gathering tool together and then pulling the material toward the first hand 35 and onto the tool 10. The first hand 35 holds all the material previously gathered on the tool. This process is repeated until all the material is on the tool.

When all the material is on the tool, the second hand 37 grasps its lower portions and holds it together. The first hand 35 is then used to pull the tool and the long end of wire or thread 38 through the gathered material, as shown in FIG. 7, until approximately one inch of wire remains extending from the back side of the gathered material 39. The tool is then released, the wire removed therefrom, and the first hand 35 pulls together the ends of the wire 38 extending from the gathered material (FIG. 8). The thumb and index finger of the hand 37 holding the gathered material 39 then pinch the top portion of the gathered material 39 together so that the ends of the wire 38 come together, the one inch end coming over the longer end attached to the tool. The two ends of the wire 38 are then twisted together close to the ruffleusually about two twists of the wire is sufficient-and the excess wire is cut off. The second hand 37 then releases the gathered material 38 which pops or springs open to form a completed, open" ruffle or pumpon 50 (HO. 9). The open ruffle 50 remains in this condition until attached to a frame. When it is to be so attached, the wire 38 is untwisted and then retwisted about the frame 53, and, as shown in FlG. 10, the edges of the ruffle are joined at 51 so that the ruffle 50 is closed.

The frame 53 is shown in cross section in FIG. 10 and the wire 38 twisted about the frame 53 is shown therein in dotted lines. The frame 53 can be constructed of a thin metal or wooden rod about one-eighth inch in diameter. The center 52 of the closed ruffle 50 is evenly gathered, which thereby affords an even ruffle.

With some experience, the above-described process should take only 15 to 20 seconds. The completed ruffle is usually combined on a frame or frames with other ruffles of different sizes or colors or other decorative items to form a finished piece.

It will thus be seen that a ruffling tool and method has been provided which fulfill all the above-mentioned objects. It will be obvious that certain modifications of the specific embodiment shown may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention. Thus, the precise design of the described tool is subject to variation, for example, the tool may be made in different dimensions in order to make ruffles of generally larger or smaller sizes. These modifications, as well as the specific embodiment abovedescribed, are intended to be covered in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A device for making ruffles from a piece of flexible material comprising:

a first portion adapted to permit said device to be grasped manually;

a second portion associated with said first portion for supporting said flexible material and adapted to allow gathering of said material thereon to form ruffles;

means associated with said device to retain fastening means to said device;

said fastening means adapted to maintain said flexible material in said gathered condition as said material is manually moved from said device to said fastening means.

2. The device of claim 8 wherein said first portion is a handle, said second portion is connected to one end of said handle, and said retaining means is operatively connected to the other end of said handle.

3. The device of claim 2 wherein said retaining means is an aperture adjacent one end of said device.

4. The device of claim 3 wherein the aperture has two jam walls therein, each having a shoulder thereon, and said fastening means may be inserted in said aperture and pulled down over said shoulders and between said jam walls.

5. The device of claim 4 wherein the fastening means is wire.

6. The device of claim 5 wherein said supporting and gathering means has an end which is rounded and smooth so that the material to be formed into a ruffle may be easily slid thereover.

7. The device of claim 6 wherein the handle has at least one recessed portion to enhance gripping of said handle.

k t s 

1. A device for making ruffles from a piece of flexible material comprising: a first portion adapted to permit said device to be grasped manually; a second portion associated with said first portion for supporting said flexible material and adapted to allow gathering of said material thereon to form ruffles; means associated with said device to retain fastening means to said device; said fastening means adapted to maintain said flexible material in said gathered condition as said material is manually moved from said device to said fastening means.
 2. The device of claim 8 wherein said first portion is a handle, said second portion is connected to one end of said handle, and said retaining means is operatively connected to the other end of said handle.
 3. The device of claim 2 wherein said retaining means is an aperture adjacent one end of said device.
 4. The device of claim 3 wherein the aperture has two jam walls therein, each having a shoulder thereon, and said fastening means may be inserted in said aperture and pulled down over said shoulders and between said jam walls.
 5. The device of claim 4 wherein the fastening means is wire.
 6. The device of claim 5 wherein said supporting and gathering means has an end which is rounded and smooth so that the material to be formed into a ruffle may be easily slid thereover.
 7. The device of claim 6 wherein the handle has at least one recessed portion to enhance gripping of said handle. 